Rebounding Adelaide Crows defender Brodie Smith wants to lead his team-mates from sidelines

ADELAIDE Crows defender Brodie Smith is still seeing a vital role to play in the AFL club’s premiership campaign while he recovers from a serious knee injury

Brodie Smith down after sliding on the fake turf and rupturing his ACL. Picture SARAH REED

BRODIE Smith’s AFL season is over, but his part in the Adelaide Football Club’s premiership campaign will continue.

Smith, 25, wants to take up coaching and mentoring duties in the Adelaide defence as he prepares for surgery to rebuilt his damaged right knee.

Scans on Friday morning confirmed the anterior cruciate ligament in the knee was ruptured when Smith twisted towards a tackle in the 10th minute of Adelaide’s 36-point win against Greater Western Sydney in the AFL qualifying final at Adelaide Oval on Thursday night.

Smith already is contemplating how he can play a meaningful part in the Crows campaign while waiting - and then recovering - from knee surgery that would keep him on the sidelines for 12 months.

This would include instructing his possible replacements in a key role from half-back in the Adelaide gameplan. The leading contenders would be Paul Seedsman and Curtly Hampton.

“I’ll work with (defence coach James Podsiadly) ‘Podsy’ and almost try to be an assistant coach to him for the next three weeks,” Smith said on Friday.

“I’ve really tried to work on my leadership this year, so I’ve done a lot of work in terms of meetings and things like that.

“(I’ll also) just try to give tips where I can and work with ‘Lairdy’ (Rory Laird) and ‘Browny’ (Luke Brown) and Jake Kelly, who play similar roles.”

Smith was hoping for some good news from the scans on Friday.

“The scans showed the worst, unfortunately, so I’ve got the (anterior cruciate ligament) tear with a bit of bone bruising and some other stuff as well, so did a good job of it,” Smith said.

“The doctors were pretty confident I’d done it (an ACL) straight away, so I guess I prepared myself for the worst, but held onto a little bit of hope that it’d be okay.

“It is what it is and I just look forward now to the next three weeks and trying to help my teammates in whatever way I can to get the ultimate success.”

Crows football chief Brett Burton confirmed the worst with Smith on Friday morning as Adelaide began preparations for its first home preliminary final since 2006.

“The injury is really disappointing for both Brodie and the club as we start our finals campaign,” Burton said.

“We will consult a specialist this week with the view to Brodie having surgery which will unfortunately rule him out for the season.

“Brodie will still be an important part of the group as we continue through September.”

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Originally published as Rebounding Adelaide Crows defender Brodie Smith wants to lead his team-mates from sidelines